pill vs topical flea treatment

You can't give Capstar a *lot* -- occasionally it's fine, but you can't give it every day (and I'm extremely sparing when it IS used).

Most oral flea stuff is not effective -- the old Program drug simply was birth control for fleas.  Any flea that bites the dog simply can't reproduce and form the hard exoskeleton that fleas must have to survive.  BUT it only works if your dog never goes ANYWHERE and there are no animals at all that have access to your house/yard (including squirrels and wildlife).

Be careful of spot ons like Revolution and Biospot and Advantage Multi -- they put pesticide into the skin that then goes into the bloodstream (and it's not well known exactly how long it stays in the system).  But essentially the flea has to *bite* the dog to die -- and when you have a dog with a flea allergy that's NOT good.

My pug is a flea *magnet* -- Vectra works the best on her.  Mine don't get a topical reaction but Frontline just isn't working well here any more -- apparently the fleas in this area have just plain become resistant.

 I've used Sentry Defense ***VERY*** sparingly (it's essential oils and very very strong smelling). 

Food-grade Diatamaceous Earth works well in the yard -- it's a dessicant and will kill most of the fleas in the yard but has to be spread often.  You can also use it on their coat as a powder occasionaly.  Again that has to be food-grade DE.

But honestly -- good old Skin So Soft bath oil -- about a teaspoonfull in 8 oz alcohol and 8 oz water -- shake and spray before you go out?  It works better than most anything else.

 Comfortis is a pill, and quite effective, BUT the fleas have to bite the dog for it to work, AND it's not safe for dogs with any kind of history of seizures. It can cause adverse reactions like skin rashes and flaky ookiness. You're probably a LOT better off with a repellant, for an allergic dog.

Something to keep in mind- for flea preventive pills to work, the flea has to bite the dog.  Not good for a flea allergic dog.  Callie gave you good advice on some of the topicals. 

thanks for all the info, we just got a new puppy and were confused about flea prevention.

If you use ivermectin-based heartworm prevention be VERY careful of Comfortis -- if you go to the Comfortis website this is a straight copy -- and to be honest, EITHER of these paragraphs (and they are only part of the cautions) would stop me COLD from using it -- most of these side effects are NEURAL -- that tells me that it's way too similar to how ivermectin works.  (ivermectin crosses the semi-permeable brain membrane of the parasite and so disrupts it that it kills the parasite -- that's why you can't use ivermectin on some herding dogs -- it actually crosses the semi-permeable brain membrane of the DOG -- and the seizure warnings in these two paragraphs would totally scare me away):